PRESS RELEASE

Obama, Saudis Spew Out Filthy Lies about JASTA Vote

Sept. 30, 2016 (EIRNS)—Obama lashed out at the U.S. Senate again on Wednesday, the day of the veto override on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) at a CNN-sponsored Town Hall meeting that had him sputtering that the Senate didn’t know what it was doing when it, first, unanimously passed JASTA and second, overrode his veto by 97 to 1. "We found out some of the people who voted for [JASTA] said, frankly, we didn’t know what was in it. And there was no debate of it," Obama lied at the CNN event. He was completely isolated and rejected by the Senate—to the extent that all the Democrats present at the Senate voted to override despite a personal letter from the White House to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that was read to the Democratic Caucus before the vote. "Jasta La Vista, Baby" is what the Wall Street Journal called the Obama debacle. And the dozens of articles that the Senate is "reconsidering" is another lie. That letter, signed by 28 Senators was actually written and circulated before the override vote took place.

Activists among the 9/11 families told EIR that the truth is that Senate leaders, Senators Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Cornyn (R-Tex.) had repeatedly tried to meet with the White House on the bill which was first introduced into Congress seven years ago, but never got a response. The Wall Street Journal yesterday quoted even Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, confirming that. Corker, who unsuccessfully tried, on Sept. 28, to delay stop the override even said that he and other Senators who asked to meet with the White House, got no response whatsoever to their calls, just a "dial tone."

The Hill stressed that the release of the "28 pages" actually worked against the Saudis because instead of showing that they had no role in 9/11, "it wasn’t totally clear" and "that’s where ... this rises and falls."

Meanwhile, the Saudis are completely paranoid and freaked out that "all the king’s horses..." couldn’t stop JASTA. Lobby leader Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir and multiple PR firms "lobbied hard" against the bill, reported the New York Times yesterday, quoting Saudi hired-hands in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) think tanks and newspapers. One angry Saudi publisher, Hutheifa Azzam, tweeted that

"The goal of JASTA is to freeze the money of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its sources and to paralyze its movement in Yemen and Syria while releasing Iranian money to tip the balance,"

reported the Times.

But, it was the British themselves through the "Royal United Services Institute—Qatar" that delivered the threat of a Saudi break in relations with the United States. The alliance "does increasingly look like a marriage that is past its sell-by date," said RUSI-Qatar head Michael Stephens.